Find State and Local Adaptation PlansThe Georgetown Climate Center tracks progress states are making in implementing their adaptation plans and provides quick access to local plans in every state on their main website.

State Government Professionals

State action to prepare for climate change is essential for preparing the nation as a whole. This network provides state professionals access to resources specifically tailored for state decisionmakers. State climate adaptation leaders can find examples of innovative state policies, agency guidance, and sector specific tools. State actors can also share key resources with one another by uploading resources to the site.

Highly Rated Resources Selected by State Professionals

The resources below are popular among state professionals. State professionals members like you may influence this list by rating resources. Just click on a resource and assign it a 1 (low) to 5 (high) star rating. The highest ratings (4 and 5) should be used to rate resources that you have found useful in your own work.

Network Rating

On November 23, 2018, the U. S. Global Change Research Program released Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) entitled Impacts, Risks and Adaptation in the United States. NCA4 includes sixteen chapters focusing on national topics and specific sectors, nine chapters focusing on different regions of the country, and two chapters focusing on both mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions) and adaptation responses to climate change. NCA4 concludes that: “ [o]bservations collected around the world provide significant, clear, and compelling evidence that global average temperature is much higher, and is rising more rapidly, than anything modern civilization has experienced, with widespread and growing impacts.

Network Rating

This comprehensive, web-based guide compiles sea level rise adaptation resources for local governments in coastal Virginia. The guide includes numerous case studies, both from Virginia and other coastal communities of the United States. It also highlights funding opportunities, costs and benefits of different approaches to adaptation, flags adaptation approaches eligible for receiving credit through the National Flood Insurance Program's Community Rating System, and explores means of public engagement.

Network Rating

Looking at 17 communities engaged in adaptation, this report examines what communities are doing to address climate risks. It finds that communities are often motivated by extreme climate event and are more focused on reducing their current vulnerabilities to extreme events, compared to addressing future climate impacts. Despite this, there is encouraging evidence that communities can begin addressing climate change risks and overcome barriers to action and implementation. The 17 case studies provide insights into the key components of a well-adapted community.

Network Rating

The National Equity Atlas, created by PolicyLink and the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity, is an online tool that allows users to find information on demographic changes, racial and economic inclusion, and potential economic gains from racial equity. Data is available for the largest 100 cities, 150 metropolitan regions, and all 50 states in the United States. While this resource does not address climate change, it can provide useful information to frame environmental justice and equity challenges that may be exacerbated by climate change.

Network Rating

From Rhode Island’s Statewide Planning Program, Technical Paper 167: “Vulnerability of Municipal Transportation Assets to Sea Level Rise and Storm Surge” analyzes the estimated geographic extent of sea level rise in relation to transportation infrastructure in the state over the next century. The study found that sea level rise presents a major challenge to Rhode Island’s transportation infrastructure, both via daily tidal flooding of coastal assets, and in making storm surge events more severe.

Network Rating

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, New York City (NYC) was left with significant damage to its urban retail corridors. In response, the NYC Department of City Planning launched the Resilient Retail study to address commercial-infrastructure flood resiliency, particularly in retail corridors located within the city’s floodplains. This report offers detailed case studies of affected areas, documents the challenges of increasing flood resiliency within retail corridors, and suggests potential solutions.

Network Rating

As of March 2016, NOAA’s National Ocean Service is providing up to $9 million in competitive grant awards through the Regional Coastal Resilience Grants program. These grants are being used to fund projects that are helping coastal communities prepare for and recover from extreme weather events, climate hazards, and changing ocean conditions. Awards were made for project proposals that advance resilience strategies, often through land and ocean use planning, disaster preparedness projects, environmental restoration, hazard mitigation planning, or other regional, state, or community planning efforts.

Network Rating

The Massachusetts Wildlife Climate Action Tools provides information on climate change impacts and vulnerability of a variety of the state’s species and habitats; as well as adaptation strategies and actions based on user selected location and interests. The online tool is focused on fish and wildlife species, forests and forestry practices, landscape connectivity (including climate related impacts on roads and culverts), land protection, and conservation planning.

Network Rating

The “Guidance for Considering the Use of Living Shorelines,” developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Living Shorelines Workgroup, represents an agency-wide effort to encourage the use of living shorelines as a shoreline stabilization technique along sheltered coasts. The report describes NOAA’s living shorelines guiding principles and how to navigate NOAA’s potential regulatory and programmatic roles in living shorelines project planning. This guidance also provides a conceptual framework of 12 questions to help NOAA and their partners when planning a shoreline stabilization effort.